Even Murderers Take Holidays and Other Mysteries

(CC) Photo: Jerry Bauer
Michael Gilbert on the back cover of Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens, 1982

Even Murderers Take Holidays and Other Mysteries is a collection of mystery stories by the British thriller writer Michael Gilbert, first published in 2007 by the British company Robert Hale and unpublished in the United States. It contains 25 previously uncollected stories, as well as an introduction by John Cooper and an appendix. Twelve of the stories feature Inspector Petrella, one of the many recurring characters that Gilbert created throughout his long career of writing both novels and short stories. It also has one story featuring Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens, as well as four stories about Inspector Hazlerigg. Gilbert, who was appointed CBE in 1980, was a founder-member of the British Crime Writers' Association. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1988 and in 1990 he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award. The locales are mostly set in London and its environs. A number of the stories, such as XXXX, have an unexpected grimness about them. "Michael was an exceptionally fine storyteller, but he's hard to classify," said one of his American publishers after his death. "He's not a hard-boiled writer in the classic sense, but there is a hard edge to him, a feeling within his work that not all of society is rational, that virtue is not always rewarded.".

Stories in order

• Introduction, page 7, by John Cooper
• The Girl Who Moved, page 10 — Detective Constable Petrella
• Somebody, page 18
• Amateur Detective, page 25
• Counter Attack, page 35
• Deep and Crisp and Even, page 45
• It Never Pays to be Too Clever, page 53
• Kendrew's Private War, page 58
• The White Slaves, page 68
• A Real Born Killer, page 81
• Old Mr Martin, page 91
• Villa Almirante, page 165
• The Two Footmen, page 179 — a Sherlock Holmes pastiche
• Trust Little Al, page 195
• By The Pricking of My Thumbs, page 208
• Appendix A, page 221
• Appendix B, page 222